Through Red Eyes
by Kaze Wind
Summary: A series of vignettes told from Naruto's point of view back in the early days of the academy. Takes place in random flashes of his younger years. Don't look for a plot, you won't find one.
1. Demon

**Demon**

I am a demon. At least, that's what everybody says. I don't really know what it means, but it must be bad. Why else would everybody look at me like that?

Demons are evil. That's all I know. I was born on an evil day. October tenth. That's when the Kyuubi attacked. Is it my fault? Is that why eveyone hates me?

* * *

**Eyes**

Today was my first day at the academy. Jiji got me in a couple of years early. He says that since I'm all alone I should learn to take care of myself, but I'm not alone. I have him, and the big white walls that listen and the eyes. Lots and lots of eyes.

* * *

**Like Them**

I'm going to hell. That's what one of the senseis said to me. I don't know why, so I asked him. He looked at me funny and walked away.

Senseis don't say that to other students. They play with them, and teach them stuff, and smile real big cresent moon smiles.

We're not learning how to fight yet. The senseis say that since we're still small we should learn normal stuff first, like how to read and write. I was confused. How come no one else can read?

The lesson was boring because all the teacher could talk about was A. A, A, A, he wrote all over the board, and lots of words that start with it. I fell asleep and the sensei got real mad. He hit me on the head and told me to read what was on the board.

Andy and Amy ate apples, I read. He looked at me real mad and gave me detention. Everyone else was looking at me mad too. I heard someone say, Know it all. Do they hate me because I'm smart?

Maybe if I'm dumb like them they'll like me. Tomorrow, I'll be dumb like them.

* * *

(Author's Note: As the summary said, this is a series of vignettes, or short stories that take a snapshot of a moment in time. It's not in chronoligical order, and there's no plot. Just some ideas of what Naruto might have been going through as a child.)


	2. Pearl Eyes

**Pearl Eyes**

I'll be your friend, he said to me one day. I'll be your friend, if you do something for me.

What do you want me to do?

I forgot my homework. Let me borrow yours.

Will you give it back?

Of course. You'll get it before sensei comes.

So I handed my homework to the boy with hair like silk and eyes like pearls. He took it real fast and ran to his seat.

I waited and waited. The sensei came in.

Be quiet, he said. Pass in your homework.

Everyone got up to pass in their homework except me. I sat in my seat in the forth row by the window and waited. I pressed my hands together and waited. I swung my feet back and forth and waited.

The boy with eyes like pearls passed in his homework and sat down in his seat. I lookad at him, willing him to get up and walk over to me and give my paper back. He never did.

After class everyone ran out away from the stuffy room that smells like paper to the outside where it smells like leaves and shopping.

I found the boy with the pearl eyes and asked for my homework back. He laughed at me.


	3. Smiles

**Smiles**

Everybody smiles different. The sensei with white hair and dark eyes smiles like the moon. The boy with the shiny black hair smiles like a firecracker. Me, I smile like a fox.

I don't mean to. When I get happy I squeeze my eyes tight and show my teeth. And I never want to stop.

People cry when they're sad. I'm always sad, so I don't cry. If I cried then I would never be able to stop. So I don't cry.

If I smile more, then it's easier to pretend I'm happy. And if I'm happy I won't cry. So I just keep smiling and let the tears bubble up inside.

* * *

**Cherries**

It means cherry blossom. Her name. It matches her pink hair and red ribbon.

She's a year older than me, but doesn't go to the academy yet. She's friends with the blonde girl who owns the flower shop.

I don't know why I noticed her one day. I was just walking and then there she was. She walked out of the flower store with her friend. They were both smiling. I didn't hear what they were talking about. You never listen to a girl's conversation.

I wish I could be her. A pretty flower, always happy, always with friends.

But she goes away and I have to be me. So I walk home to the walls that listen, avoiding the eyes that are always there.


	4. Graduation

**Graduation**

Everyone's graduating tomorrow, except me.

The test is easy, everyone says. Even a baby could pass it.

I'm no baby, but I can't pass it. I don't know how to channel chakra. The senseis were supposed to give individual lessons. Maybe they just forgot me? I'm not sure.

A ninja doesn't need to read, says one of the bigger, dumber kids. What good is reading in a fight? None. No good. Don't read. Fight.

I don't know how to channel chakra, but I can read better than anyone. So I'll read about chakra. I'll learn myself. And then next year, maybe, I can graduate with the rest.

But tomorrow, I'll stay home. If someone comes to get me, I'll be sick. Yep, real sick. Sick of being smart.


	5. Dolphin

**Dolphin**

I have a different sensei this time. I like him. He has brown skin and brown hair and brown eyes and a line on his nose. He wears his hair in a ponytail, but what I like best about him is his smile. He smiles like the ocean.

His name is Dolphin. I think it's a funny name, but I don't laugh. My name is just as weird.

After class I have detention. I put glue in the pearl-eyed boy's seat. They had to cut his pants off.

So I stay after school. Dolphin asks me why I did it.

It was funny, I answer. He looks mad at me, but I ignore him. I'm used to it.

When it's time to leave I grab my bag and start to go, but Dolphin stops me.

Aren't your parents going to pick you up? he asks. I tell him I don't have any. He looks sad and suddenly I feel sad too.

Would you like me to take you out to eat? he asks me. I don't have anything to eat at home, so I say yes, except I don't tell him I have nothing else to eat.

He takes me to Icharaku's. The people there don't look at me funny or tell me to leave, so I smile. Dolphin tells me I have a nice smile.

He buys me a big bowl of noodles. It smells real good. I eat it quickly in case the owner changes his mind. He doesn't. He even gives me another bowl! Soon I've eaten six bowls. Dolphin says not to worry. The food here is real cheap. Soon it's time to go and we say goodbye. I'll have to come here again.


	6. Three Weeks

**Three Weeks From October Tenth**

You can't stay here anymore, they said to me one day. How old are you? Five?

Not yet. My birthday's in three weeks.

You're too old. Have to move out. Have to make room for other children.

So I get my things. The nightcap Jiji gave me, my clothes, my tiny little toothbrush, and stick them all in a bag and go. I don't know where to go. They tell me to figure it out myself, so I just walk and walk.

A bum man on the street stops me.

Where are you going all alone?

I don't know.

Don't you have any place to stay little boy? bum man asks, making clouds of whiskey breath.

No. I just got kicked out, I say, dizzy from bum man's yellow breath.

Come with me, little kitsune, bum man says, smiling a rotten smile. Come with me. A little kitsune shouldn't be on the streets. Come with me.

I get scared and try to walk away, but bum man grabs my arm. I feel funny. I try to get away, but bum man's dirty fingernails dig into my arm.

Come with me little kitsune. Cute little kitsune. I'll take you home.

I yank free. Bum man yells something into the air, but I can't hear him anymore. I'm too far away now, running, running. I don't stop running until I get to Jiji's tower. I run inside and run more until I find his office. And then I run inside and cry. And I don't stop all night.


	7. Spiraling

**Spiraling**

My name means maelstrom. It means wildness. It means power.

But it also means spiral. Down, down, into the dark.

Other people have nice names.

Her name means blossom. His name means moon. His means dolphin. They're all happy with their nice names. Not me. I'm a whirlpool, who'll suck you down with me if you get too close.

I wonder how I got my name. Did I just wake up one day and become maelstrom? Or did someone reach into a big paper bag filled with names and pull it out for me?

Jiji says my parents called me that, but it doesn't make any sense because I don't have any parents.

Sometimes I think about a name I wish I could have.

Hikaru or Yoshi or Kiyoshi. I especially like Kiyoshi.

* * *

**I Love You**

I love you. That's something I hear adults say to kids all the time. What does it mean? I love you?

I want to ask someone, but I don't know who to ask. Why do people say it all the time? No one's ever said it to me? Is it because I'm all alone? No parents?

Sometimes I wonder why I don't have parents. Is a parent just a grown up who looks like you? Sometimes Dolphin says I'm like a son to him, but I don't understand.

I don't know anyone who looks like me. No one has the same hair as me or the same eyes or the same whiskers. The only one who looks like me is the big face in the mountain with the spiky hair.

Everyday I look at it and wish I could turn into stone so that I would have family. But it never works and I'm the same everyday.

So I walk to school, just the same as before, while parents whisper I love you to their kids and leave.

* * *

(Author's Note: Hikaru means Radiance, Yoshi means righteous and Kiyoshi means Pure.)


	8. Library

**The Library**

One, two, three four...

There is a library that sleeps on a lonely street four houses away from my house.

It's lonely because people don't like to go there anymore. The neighborhood's getting bad, everyone says. So they take their tv's the size of goldfish boxes and and pale clothes, eaten by moths, and babies that smell pink and go, except for me since I got nowhere to go.

The library is old and sleepy. It has gray paint that used to be white and tiny windows that look like they're squinting to see far away.

I trudge up the stairs, my sad brown shoes taking me up to the sleepy library. It is dark and cold inside, and there are piles of books laying on tables, pages drooping from crying so much.

I to to pick up a book, but then an old woman who looks like a skinny tree with a thin neck and pointy elbows gets mad.

Don't touch that, she yells. What are you doing here? You don't belong here. Trying to deface public property?

I tell her I'm just trying to find books on chakra, but she doesn't listen. She grabs me with her pointy wooden hands and throws me down the steps outside. My lip is broken, but I don't mind. It's already healing.

I walk home and the four houses with the faded paint and tiny windows sneer at me.They're angry at me for making their people move away. So I go home and hide in my room and look through the tiny window at the neighborhood I made bad.


End file.
